ot excepted--that were not largely indebted to
him for their facts and their fame. They took his plants and
specimens--collected by arduous, toilsome, and perilous journeyings--
they put names to them--noble and kingly names--for king-sycophants most
of them were, these same naturalists--they _described_ them as _they_
call it--such descriptions, indeed! and then adopted them as their own
discoveries. And what did they give John Bartram in return for all his
trouble? Why, the English king gave him 50 pounds to enable him to
travel over thousands of miles of wilderness in search of rare plants,
many of which on reaching England were worth hundreds of pounds each!
This was all the poor botanist had for enriching the gardens of Kew, and
sending over the first magnolias and tulip-trees that ever blossomed in
England! What did the scientific naturalists do for him? They stole
his histories and descriptions, and published them under their own
names. Now, brothers, what think you of it? Is it not enough to spoil
one's temper when one reflects upon such injustice?"

Both Basil and Francois signified their assent.

"It is to such men as Hearne, and Bartram, and Wilson, that we are
indebted for all we know of natural history--at least, all that is worth
knowing. What to us is the dry knowledge of scientific classifications?
For my part, I believe that the authors of them have obscured rather
than simplified the knowledge of natural history. Take an example.
There is one before our eyes. You see those long streamers hanging down
from the live oaks?"

"Yes, yes," replied Francois; "the Spanish moss."

"Yes, Spanish moss, as we call it here, or _old-man's-beard_ moss, as
they name it in other parts. It is no moss, however, but a regular
flowering plant, although a strange one. Now, according to these
philosophic naturalists, that long, stringy, silvery creeper, that looks
very like an old man's beard, is of the same family of plants as the
pineapple!"

"Ha! ha! ha!" roared Francois; "Spanish moss the same as a pineapple
plant! Why, they are no more like than my hat is to the steeple of a
church."

"They are unlike," continued Lucien, "in every respect--in appearance,
in properties, and uses; and yet, were you to consult the dry books of
the closet-naturalists, you would learn that this Spanish moss
(_Tillandsia_) was of a certain family of plants, and a few particulars
of that sort, and that is all you would lear